Roni

Chapter Six

"Emma, are you sure you're alright?" Regina's concerned motherly tone echoes through the dark apartment and tugs at Emma's heartstrings. That soft voice will always remind her of the way Regina spoke to their son when he was younger, it's a gentle tone that was reserved only for Henry.

Well...and maybe sometimes Emma, but that's something she's just noticing now for the first time.

It's around three in the morning and Emma is struggling to fall asleep this evening. Her head is pounding murderously and now she actually does feel a stiffness in her neck that she was teasing about earlier in the night. After the vicious pain became too much she stumbled out into the shadowy hall and into the bathroom, rummaging the cabinets for any type of aspirin or pain killers at this point. She has an inkling this version of Regina might have a few good pain killers stashed away somewhere.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a small headache," she lies, huffing under her breath as to why she can't find any freaking aspirin in this cabinet.

"What are you doing in the bathroom?"

"Looking for something to help with this pain," she grumbles, wincing when her anger triggers the harsh thumping in her temples to increase.

"I keep the aspirin in my room. I'm sorry I'm not used to having guests."

That acknowledgment hits a little too close to home for Emma. Regina never had visitors back at her mansion, unless someone was charging through her door just to fight or blame the Evil Queen for something. It seems this version of Regina is just as lonely as the one in Storybrooke.

Roni disappears from behind Emma, but then she can hear a nightstand opening in Regina's room. She exits the bathroom and trudges grumpily toward her roommate's bedroom. She leans heavily on the doorframe, not wanting to invade the other woman's space. She would never even dream of entering Regina's bedroom back home. She was always such a private person and Emma never thought of crossing any of those boundaries with her.

"Here," from the soft glow streaming through the window, Emma finds Roni gently holding out her hand with two aspirin waiting patiently for her to consume. However, she hesitates for a brief moment, because this feels so wrong to be in Regina's room. "I'm not gonna bite. You are welcome to come in here, ya know?"

Emma sighs and nervously treks into the forbidden room and over to the bed. Luckily, it's dark enough in the room, that she doesn't think Roni can read how nervous she truly is. Her roommate is perched at the edge of the bed when Emma finally reaches her.

"Sit. I'll go grab you some water."

"It's fine Re-Roni. I can get it-"

"Stop, relax. I gotcha," she smiles, standing up from her bed and leaves the room without further discussion.

Emma quickly glances around before the other woman has a chance to return. I'm in Regina Mills' bedroom, Emma shrieks in her mind. Well not technically, this is Roni's room. I miss my sassy friend, she sorrowfully thinks, but isn't there apart of Regina that's still there?

"Here you go. Drink slow," Roni instructs, handing over the glass of water and snapping Emma back to reality before she can even assess the room properly.

"Thank you," she whispers, popping the pills into her mouth and swallowing them down with the offered water.

"Of course."

Roni's hand slowly stretches toward the side of Emma's face, freezing the blonde on the spot from not knowing what is about to occur between them. Roni's fingers slowly curl just before she slips a loose strand of blonde locks in disarray behind Emma's ear. She then proceeds to clamp her palm over Emma's forehead, kick starting the blonde's heart into overdrive and definitely turning up her body temperature. Her fingers are so cold and the contrast between Emma's warm forehead feels too good at the moment and she finds herself melting against the gentle touch.